Meatloaf

As a typical child growing up in the Midwest, I was introduced to many American culinary staples (pork chops, pot roast, lasagna, etc.) Unfortunately, despite my Mother's best intentions, the end results were rarely spectacular. Although these meals contained an abundance of love, they usually lacked much flavor.
Since adulthood, I've embarked on a quest to re-visit the food of my youth - knowing that, if prepared well, they would taste incredible.
While watching a recent episode of Cookin' In Brooklyn on the Discovery Channel, I was excited to see Chef Alan Harding preparing a delicious looking homemade meatloaf.
A recipe can be found here:
http://home.discovery.com/fansites/cook ... tloaf.html
Since this recipe would feed a small village, I reduced the ingredients to feed Mrs. Johnny, our 70 pound pit bull Frankie, and myself. I utilized 1/2 pound of ground beef, 1/2 pound of turkey, about a 12 inch section of Italian sausage and one egg. The other ingredients were added to scale and taste. I eliminated the inclusion of nacho chips and matzo meal and substituted a larger portion of bread crumbs instead.
Here is the result in progress:

The carmelized molasses really makes this dish. Of course, my pro-bacon credo was in full effect with a generous sprinkling of this porcine gold on top. We enjoyed this dish with our maple corn bread with bacon and scallions. My wife, who possesses more culinary skills in one finger than I could ever hope to have, gave the dish a resounding thumbs up. Frankie, who eats anything presented to him, seemed to approve also.
Enjoy!

This looks soooo good that it is making me salivate.
I'm glad you shared the pictures, but I have to say they have made my dinner look pathetic and I am feeling totally deprived

Jyoti

jygach wrote:This looks soooo good that it is making me salivate.
I'm glad you shared the pictures, but I have to say they have made my dinner look pathetic and I am feeling totally deprived

Jyoti

Thanks for the kind words. I had a blast making the meal. I was worried the photos wouldn't do it justice - since the process is a bit messy.
I'll have to work on my food photography skills...

Looks great. I've recently tried to re-live my grandmothers old recipes and also made a meatloaf. She was from central IL so anything outside of salt and pepper were almost exotic but the end result was always great. Her recipe was basically all ground beef, using egg and crushed saltines as a binder. Onions were included, cut by hand (no cutting board here) with a cheap paring knife held over the mixing bowl. Salt, pepper and that's it. She would bake it too long and the result was a very crispy outside. But here's the best part: the drippings were used to make a milk gravy and the end result, combined with mashed potatos, and homemade noodles, was just incredible.

My deviation is to chop the onions evenly and sweat them down with a pat of butter until tender, then add to the mixture. I usually don't cook it as long either and sometimes skip the gravy, knowing the calories that exist there. The saltines are really nice though and it makes a bit denser loaf, which is perfect for leftover sandwiches.

This is really making me hungry....

I have always been a meatloaf hater, despite the fact that my husband and children love the stuff. In fact, I used to call friends up when my mother said we were having meatloaf for dinner and invite myself to dinner at their homes to avoid having to eat it. I love hamburger -- but there was always something about meatloaf that turned my stomach. Go figure.

A few weeks ago an old friend who lives out of town called to tell me both her parents had recently been in the hospital. She asked me to check on them and I immediately said I would like to bring them a meal. She thanked me profusely and mentioned that her mother was having trouble chewing and was one of those people who only eats "meat and potatoes." I also remembered that this particular household was the one where I learned all about Hamburger Helper. They had every flavor known to man in their cupboards. So, after consulting a few cookbooks, I decided a meatloaf with mashed potatoes was in order. The recipe I chose actually made two, so one went to the friends' grateful parents and the other was for my house. I decided, after over 40 years of avoiding the stuff, that I should at least TASTE it before bringing it over. After all, I reasoned, I didn't want to poison anyone accidentally.

What do you know? It wasn't nearly as horrible as I remembered from my childhood, and I've had requests to make it again. In fact, it was good. Really good. Have another helping good.

I'm looking forward to adding it to my rotation of easy meals for the family.

Suzy